


intermission

by ivelostmyspectacles



Category: The Greatest Showman (2017)
Genre: Accidental Cuddling, Gen, Gen Work, Sleepiness, accidental... leaning into each other and being dozy, well they're on the train it's not really cuddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-06 03:40:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14633328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/ivelostmyspectacles
Summary: The days are long, and the train puts Phillip to sleep.





	intermission

The ride from station to station wasn’t long, but the day had been and Barnum wasn’t surprised when Phillip promptly fell asleep, arms crossed and head tucked low to his chest, upon boarding.

The day was far from over, though, even as the sun was beginning to sink beyond the horizon; a new advertising campaign had Phillip accompanying back to his home each night, working well into the hours of early morning before finally calling it quits. He’d been staying over due to such, passing out in the spare room or on the sofa. It wasn’t _ideal_ , but Charity had said she would rather have them _there_ than at work all hours of the night, and promised them a home-cooked meal. Barnum still wasn’t sure if it was the allure of spending time with his girls or the meal that caused Phillip to agree so heartily, but even he had to admit that a week solid of dachshund sausages and coffee made you long for the comforts of home.

They had work ahead of them still, but for now, P.T. was content to let Phillip sleep.

It was around about the time that Barnum was thinking that that Phillip’s head descended upon his shoulder.

Barnum looked sideways at him, swallowing back the laugh that would have caused his shoulders to shake. It wasn’t funny, not truly; the only reason Phillip was so tired was because of how hard he was pushing them both, but still… something about the vulnerability of it all made him smile.

Well, he still wasn’t going to wake him. Let him catch a few winks with the comfort of his shoulder as a pillow, he didn’t mind. If anything, it would give him a boost for later; they may be able to get more done if Barnum didn’t give into the exhaustion first himself. They’d see where it went, anyway.

For now, he held himself still so that he didn’t disturb his sleeping business partner, and let his mind wander on to what they needed to get done tonight.

 

 

The ride wasn’t long, but it was just long enough to let the motion of the train start to lull P.T. into a false promise of relaxation and quietude. The shriek of the whistle through the otherwise steady rhythm of noise on the railway dragged him back to full reality and with him, at least part of Phillip’s consciousness returned as well. A shift and a murmur, although he didn’t sit up.

Barnum sighed, and set to moving his shoulder minutely. They would be pulling into station in a moment. There was no point to let him sleep any longer. “Phillip,” he said, gently nudging the man’s temple with his shoulder. “Phillip, we’re here.”

“Yeah, jus’… few more minutes,” he mumbled.

Now he couldn’t help but laugh, with no time to _let_ him sleep for a few more minutes. “Phil, come on, man.” Another sharp nudge and Phillip came awake, slowly, mumbling again before his eyes cracked open. “Good morning, sunshine,” Barnum greeted.

Phillip was still for a moment, seemingly frozen asides the slow, confused, and tired blinking he was doing. And then he pulled away suddenly, lips already pulled into what looked to be a self-conscious frown. “Er– sorry, P.T.” He dragged his hand through his hair. Barnum watched with gentle amusement as the man straightened his spine and lifted his chin. “Didn’t mean to fall asleep on you. Hope you weren’t talking or anything.”

“Not at all.” He took the opportunity to stretch, joints protesting the stiff position and lack of movement. “So long as you didn’t drool,” he teased, and got back on his feet.

The look Phillip shot him might have been affronted if it didn’t look still half unconscious to begin with. “I don’t drool.”

For his sake, Barnum pretended he didn’t see the man scrub the back of his hand against his mouth as he was turning away. “Come on, Phillip. We’ve got whiskey and blueprints to keep us company for the night.”

Until one of them– or both– inevitably fell asleep, that was.

Phillip was already yawning as he followed him to the carriage.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not really on tumblr anymore so I just recently went into the tGS tag out of curiosity and found all the Barlyle-- I'm not sailing this ship but I've always been a slut for touchy-feely platonic crap so if you don't mind my blatant lack of shipping, I'm your girl for some cute shit with them I guess xD


End file.
